What your community will look like in a hundred years in a changed climate. Host Daphne Wysham speaks to the Tony Janetos, the co-author of an effort that brings together 13 US government agencies, laboratories and universities to create a comprehensive report on climate change in America. Janetos is the director of the Joint Global Change Research Institute at the University of Maryland and the Pacific Northwest National Lab.

The USA’s first major climate legislation is poised to come to a vote in Congress this week, joining us to discuss the bill and review how it will affect the upcoming Copenhagen climate talks is Erich Pica, policy analyst for the Friends of the Earth; Gillian Caldwell, campaign director for 1Sky; and Devin Helfrich, the legislative advocate for the Friends Committee on National Legislation.

Part of the wrangling over the bill is intense lobbying by big agriculture companies as they push their way into the trillion dollar carbon market. Stanford Law professor Michael Wara joins us to discuss their efforts. Wara is also a member of the program for Energy and Sustainable Development at Stanford University.

Then, the legal precedent set by oil giant Shell’s decision to pay out over $15 million dollars to settle a thirteen-year case filed by the family of the slain Nigerian writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiaw. We speak to Nigerian human rights lawyer, Oronto Douglas and the executive director of the group Oil Change International, Steve Kretzmann.

"Earthbeat is one of the best informed and most relevant programs to
focus on climate change. Wysham consistently zeroes in on critical (if sometimes under acknowledged) aspects of the climate
crisis. And unlike many other environmental programs, which tend to
ghettoize the climate issue, Earthbeat is the only program I know that
treats this enormous challenge with the thoughtfulness, honesty and
depth it deserves."